British Prime Minister Tony Blair is looking at ways of securing a fresh United Nations resolution to cover a US-led military strike against Iraq, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday, quoting senior diplomats.
Blair sees the move as a way of shoring up the international coalition against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, according to the diplomats.
”He (Blair) is certainly listening very carefully to the argument that a fresh UN resolution is needed,” one senior diplomat told the FT.
Another official close to Blair told the business daily: ”The question being asked is whether this (a fresh UN resolution) could help build the coalition against Saddam Hussein. We are at the stage of posing that question.”
A separate senior diplomat added: ”The Russians and Chinese won’t be part of the coalition but they won’t block a UN resolution either.”
Securing a resolution should also give Blair the support he needs at home for British participation in any war alongside its closest ally America.
Growing opposition to military action within Blair’s own Labour Party has seen Britain hold back from echoing calls from hardliners in US President George Bush’s administration for a military strike against Iraq leading to Saddam’s overthrow.
Denis Healey, a former deputy leader of the Labour Party, told the BBC late on Friday that Blair risked being ousted as leader of the party if he backed Washington over Iraq.
Healey told the Newsnight television programme: ”I don’t think he (Blair) could survive overwhelming public and party opposition to British support for an American attack. And I think if we didn’t support an attack it is very unlikely Bush would carry it out.”
Michael Cashman, a Labour member of the European Parliament, told the programme that Blair would split the party by backing the US president.
Cashman said: ”If there is military action I believe it will be cataclysmic for the government, cataclysmic for the party and cataclysmic for the country. It will split us right down the middle.” – Sapa-AFP